After all these years of media scare stories trying to terrify readers with worries about how kids are too sedentary and don't eat well, I suppose it's comforting to find a scare story about how teen boys are obsessed gym rats who consume lots of protein and very little fat. The New York Times delivers the goods:

Take David Abusheikh. At age 15, he started lifting weights for two hours a day, six days a week. Now that he is a senior at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, he has been adding protein bars and shakes to his diet to put on muscle without gaining fat.

I didnt used to be into supplements, said Mr. Abusheikh, 18, who plans on a career in engineering, but I wanted something that would help me get bigger a little faster.

Pediatricians are starting to sound alarm bells about boys who take unhealthy measures to try to achieve Charles Atlas bodies that onlygenetics can truly confer. Whether it is long hours in the gym, allowances blown on expensive supplements or even risky experiments with illegal steroids, the price American boys are willing to pay for the perfect body appears to be on the rise.

Here's the new data to justify the article:

In a study to be published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, more than 40 percent of boys in middle school and high school said they regularly exercised with the goal of increasing muscle mass. Thirty-eight percent said they used protein supplements, and nearly 6 percent said they had experimented with steroids.

Over all, 90 percent of the 1,307 boys in the survey  who lived in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, but typify what doctors say is a national phenomenon  said they exercised at least occasionally to add muscle.

teen obesity led to early death (sample expert quote: "We know that health behaviors are established early on in life.") is now concerned that large numbers of teenage boys are exercising, and experimenting with diets that will help them build muscle.

Why exactly should we be so worried?

The problem with supplements is theyre not regulated like drugs, so its very hard to know whats in them, said Dr. Shalender Bhasin, a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Some contain anabolic steroids, and even high-quality protein supplements might be dangerous in large amounts, or if taken to replace meals, he said. These things just havent been studied very well, he said.

So the problem with supplements and other muscle-boosters is that the government has left them alone and worried nannies have not yet determined if there are problems with them?

No public health scare story would be complete without someone to blame. The New York Times points to television shows like Jersey Shore and Girls, which apparently feature muscled men who inspire admirers to spend time in the gym hoping to achieve a similar look. But The New Republic's Alec MacGillis has

a different villain in mind: buff Beltway politicians like Paul Ryan:

Before we lay all the blame on The Situation, it's worth noting that the muscle-head mindset has infected a more rarefied realm of American life as well: Beltway Washington.

If he is rotating muscle groups, he is not overtraining. When I was in the military, we trained in 90 minute secions, twice a day 6 days a week when deployed. At 15 he has plenty of testostrone so his recover time will be measured in hours rather than days.

Teenage boys in this modern society need to exercise to build muscle - their bodies expect it and were intended for it at that age, so they would start adulthood more fit.

In long-forgotten times, teenage boys WERE more physically active, because life and “life style” REQUIRED it - they worked, in some capacity or another, and the further back in time you go, the deeper into the long-ago establishment of the genetic pattern you go, the work was more physically demanding in one way or another.

Todays society, to the extent it discourages teenage boys NOT to give their bodies muscle building, muscle toning exercise, is asking the boys to (a)ignore what their bodies expect at their age (their metabolism is primed for it) and (b) forgoe good habits that will serve them well in their teens, good habits they will be more inclined to keep - in some fashion - when they are older, if they are a regular part of life already.

Is it necessary to seek to become a “Charles Atlas”? No. And the survey statistics indicate that only a small percentage are trying to do that.

I’m a year behind and not as big. At 39 I started signing up for runs -no way I was going to run without some motivation. I’m not fast but I have decent endurance (cranked out a marathon without training).

Feel great but I’m not able to keep the mass on like before.

11
posted on 11/20/2012 11:20:15 AM PST
by NativeSon
( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)

“For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”

Now I know some here are going to misunderstand me, but I am no way surprised by this article.

For hundreds of years children were schooled to esteem “worship” character and morality, but with the post-Christian era upon us they are obsessed with physical things instead. Kids today are taught we have two parts - physical and mental - and very little spiritual - if they talk about “spiritual” it is basically being “happy”.

Of course kids are obsessed with their bodies and possessions. What about our current culture leads them to think anything or anyone else might be important?

12
posted on 11/20/2012 11:22:07 AM PST
by I still care
(I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)

This habitual training will come in useful later in their lives. One day they will have to chase down and stab their next meal as guns will be illegal and they won’t be able to afford chicken at $1,500/lb.

My 18-year-old lifts weights. He’s a lifeguard in the summer, and he wants to look good for girls. He uses whey protein as a supplement when he’s doing a lot of running, swimming or weightlifting. Yo, food police ... it’s like MILK.

I know your pain. I had to get both shoulders rebuilt when I was 40 yrs old and couldn't lift my arms to shut off the alarm clock. It was more due to my clavicle scraping my humerus joint, but the surgeon commented on "the extremely active life" I've led. In years past, @ 168 lbs, I was matching Nate Newton, the all-pro, 350lb lineman for the Cowboys, rep-for-rep on the lat pull down (probably 375lbs x 5 reps). Yeah, it kind of hurt my spine too.

20
posted on 11/20/2012 12:15:08 PM PST
by uncommonsense
(Conservatives believe what they see; Liberals see what they believe.)

"In long-forgotten times, teenage boys WERE more physically active, because life and life style REQUIRED it - they worked"

Indeed, and some still do. This reporter needs to visit a farm and see what it's like for a 12 year old boy to work 12 hours a day up in a 100 degree barn throwing and stacking hay bails. I think I bailed hay every summer from when I was 9 to 20 years old. No gloves, no shirt, no long pants. $2/hr. Glad to get it.

21
posted on 11/20/2012 12:23:20 PM PST
by uncommonsense
(Conservatives believe what they see; Liberals see what they believe.)

I was doing bent over rows at 360. Down at 225 now. Working back into it.

Trying to get my joints back up to par, I've been doing 3 days light weight/high rep and 3 on cardio. No supplementation, although I've upped my water intake a bit to help keep the system flushed.

I hate to admit this, but I've been thinking of getting in to crossfit. Most lifters frown on it as it leans you out a lot and the granola-munchers have kind of infiltrated it. But, that's kinda what I'm looking for now. Leaner, less bulky.

Getting too old to be carrying this much weight, even in muscle much less fat.

I heard Michael Savage say once that light exercise is the key to good health and long life. The stories here about the damage done and repaired needed due to excessive weightlifting are testament to that, I think.

We certainly can’t look to our genetic background to suggest we should be doing anything to our bodies that requires surgery that wasn’t available in the past. Also, the extent to which a modern exercise routine at a gym mimics what primitive man would do in the wild is questionable. There would’ve been more varied movement and physical activity on a hunt or on a farm, not being locked in position on a machine.

And, of course, ingesting any kind of supplements, especially unnatural ones, could easily have unpredictable and deleterious effects on one’s health. Not to mention doing that is TOTALLY unnecessary if your goal is to improve your health.

Physical health is a worthy goal. Men becoming obsessed with their physical body image the way that a young woman suffering from anorexia or bulimia does is not. Human history tells us how harmful and destructive vanity is to the human spirit.

31
posted on 11/20/2012 1:27:09 PM PST
by JediJones
(Newt Gingrich warned us that the "King of Bain" was unelectable. Did you listen?)

"I heard Michael Savage say once that light exercise is the key to good health and long life. The stories here about the damage done and repaired needed due to excessive weightlifting are testament to that"

I concur, based on experience. What is possible may not be what is best.

36
posted on 11/20/2012 2:38:00 PM PST
by uncommonsense
(Conservatives believe what they see; Liberals see what they believe.)

I knew the soy was a bad idea. He eats plenty of meat, I think, but he likes the extra protein from the milkshake, especially when he’s running and doing weights.

It funny that “they” would be concerned about a boy’s spending two hours a day in the gym, but not about his spending two hours a day playing video games or eight hours a day sitting in classrooms not paying attention.

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